


Fools and Demons

by defeatedbyabridge



Category: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-11
Updated: 2012-09-11
Packaged: 2017-11-14 00:51:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defeatedbyabridge/pseuds/defeatedbyabridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enter and Hiromu need each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fools and Demons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butyoumight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/gifts).



> Based on some very interesting caps floating around. This is a stylistic experiment, kind of a fairytale AU, and basically don't hate me. XD

"Prove it," says Enter, his lips an invitation, his tongue a lie. 

Hiromu shrugs. "It does not matter if you don't believe that I will accept you, will fight alongside you instead of with you. The simple truth is that neither of us can survive the badlands alone. Whether you believe you are a lost human or pure demon, you need my help." 

"Ahh." Enter tchhs, lips pulling back off his teeth. Hiromu waits patiently, if not in the best of moods. He is not sick of arguing with Enter. Generally, he will fight to the finish to convince Enter that he has a place with them all back at the castle. Today, he knows that Enter will cede his point regarding survival before long. 

But it has been a long day, battling sprites and goblins, and he is weary to the bone. His shoulders hurt, his cheekbone is bruised, and his leg aches where a tiny but wickedly sharp sword slashed across his flesh. He suspects the sword was poisoned. No matter. Nothing he can do about it now. He needs to muster all of his energy to dash through the badlands with Enter on his back, while Enter protects them magically. 

Which requires a joining. 

Not at all intimidating when it's one of his teammates, though it took a few practices before he was comfortable relying on someone else to such an extent. Now it is second nature to let his being flow into theirs, to see the world partly through Yoko's eyes, through Ryuuji's, through Jin's. He has not had to perform a joining of this type with J as of yet, though he knows it will come. Only the five of them -- six, including Enter -- can even survive in the wasteland at all. In the badlands, the worst part, not even Enter can live for long. Their weapons don't even function in the badlands. 

If the badlands were smaller, or if Hiromu could shield himself while running at top speed, he wouldn't require this 'assistance' at all. But he'd still do it. If Enter dies while they fight, he will regret it, but it will be a consequence of battle. Outside of battle he will do all he can to save him. 

It is still intimidating, however, to contemplate it with Enter. 

A chittering, just outside the cave where the portal tossed them. "This is not safe," Hiromu states baldly. 

Enter growls, coming around behind him. Hiromu swallows, but stands calmly enough. 

He cannot restrain a flinch when Enter's fingers touch the sides of his head, shockingly cold. Enter chuckles. His voice a caress, he enquires, "Would you prefer to make another attempt at the portal?" 

"Fruitless. Go ahead." 

Hiromu steels himself, and Enter's fingers spider forward to cup the sides of his face. Hiromu focuses on the feel of him, on adjusting, on finding commonalities. It takes time to learn to join through the differences. Time they do not have. 

"I am nothing like you," a voice hisses, but as it does so partly within his mind, Hiromu does not protest. He simply absorbs, taking in more and more of Enter, feeding back more and more of his own substance, until they are evenly distributed, and he realises...

"I, too, am afraid," he murmurs. He projects calm and courage, however. Fear is acceptable, but being unable to deal with it is not. 

There's a flash of anger. A stormcloud in their mutual mental landscape. But in this state things can be hidden but no lies told. Enter is afraid. And in that moment, Hiromu comes closer to saving him. 

Grey storms. "I still have control, my fool," says the voice in his ear. Enter's physical substance is lighter, now, as they have joined both physically and mentally. Enter is still capable of causing pain.

"No need-"

He drives Hiromu to his knees, agony flashing through him from head to heels. Hiromu catches himself with a hand in the dirt, gasping, but begins to stand anyway. This is idiocy and they must move. His bad leg near buckles beneath him. Enter curses under his breath in another language, catches him with an arm around his ribs, and stands him upright again. "Injured. You fool." 

Without any further talking, Enter attaches himself to Hiromu and they move. 

Enter is a light weight on his back and an immense, intrusive weight in his mind. He is not examining Hiromu's memories, merely claiming them all. Hiromu forces himself to focus on running down the hill from the tiny cave. There are rocks littered across the grass, and the sky is dark purple; not enough light to make avoiding them easy. A chill wind howls, carrying promises of disease and death, but Hiromu feels Enter focus, somehow. The wind still howls, but now it is merely wind. 

The first attack comes as they enter the forest. The trees are leafless, bone coloured, brittle. Enter's shield holds from above only. Hiromu has to draw his sword to slash at a tiny clawing nasty on his boot, but without Enter's help there would have been another twenty. If his blaster worked, he could deal with all of them, but no matter. 

* * *

HIromu's running on gravel, now. 

Rika comes into his mind, and he's not sure if it's because he willed it or because Enter did. 

"Your sister's pretty," Enter says quietly, absentmindedly. 

Hiromu smiles, and hurdles a pool of something noxious. "She is." 

There's a grumble of anger from Enter. "Ah, you." Anger because he would dare take that as a random compliment, a random thought, instead of as a threat. But even before this, Hiromu would've trusted Enter in this way.

"She could destroy you with a look, anyway," he says after a pause. "She'd be safe with you." 

* * *

It feels as if he's been running for days. 

There is a flash of memory so strong that Hiromu nearly falls as they enter the swamp, but Enter touches the back of his neck and whispers something caressing into his hair -- he can't quite make out the words -- and Hiromu manages to right himself again. 

He doesn't quite lose the memory, though. 

"Your father hated swamps," he says quietly. 

"I am demon, my fool." Enter doesn't speak to him for the next hour, and then they are attacked again.

* * *

Hiromu is doggedly limping by the time they reach the border. Enter is a spectral manifestation next to him, with an arm around him, holding him up just as much as he's leaning on him. That should not be possible in a joining of this nature, but who could say what nature these two share? 

"I can make a portal now," Hiromu says as he realises wearily that they have crossed over. The wasteland is not a pleasant place, but there is considerably less wild magic than in the badlands. It's safe. He knows how to use the magic here. 

He looks at Enter. Enter looks at him.

They break apart, physically and mentally. Enter leaps, and sends his cables after Hiromu. Hiromu throws himself into a dive over a rock, into a patch of coarse grass, and fires at Enter. 

Both miss. 

Enter shimmers, and Hiromu walks into a portal. But not before Hiromu sees the small grin on Enter's face. It matches his own.


End file.
